Little People In Little Places: The Average Size Of SBC Churches

There has been some talk recently about the average size of Southern Baptist Churches. Some have said that we are a large convention of mostly small churches. Others noted that by total membership most Southern Baptists belong to larger churches.

So who’s right? And does it even matter?Les Puryear has been posting on these issues. I’ve turned his numbers into these charts so we can ask the same questions.

8 Responses to Little People In Little Places: The Average Size Of SBC Churches

I gotta say, these two charts, taken together, are somewhat confusing. If just over a quarter of our total members belong to churches of less than 500, why is it the largest concentration of members belongs to those churches that have more than 500? Maybe I’m just showing how bad at math I am, but every time I read the preceding sentence in this comment, red flags keep waving.

From what I can tell: top graph is just about numbers of churches. The bottom graph is about the actual number of people in the convention, and where they are.

It is interesting that 81% of the convention is in churches over 300 members. However, this does not at all mean most of our convention is in big churches. There is a good many of those churches have an attendance in the 100’s. I personally know of two churches that run in the hundreds on Sunday mornings, with a membership of over 1000. Membership numbers seem fairly useless in the SBC due to the bloated nature of our roles. I would would like to see the percentages based on average attendance.

I see. I don’t know much about messengers, and I’ve never been to the Annual Meeting. That is probably why I didn’t understand his question, “Should our Convention be run by churches or by membership?”

What does ACP mean?

By the way, I wasn’t trying to say the graphs he put up were not helpful. I am just thinking knowing attendance would help me to better know what kind of churches a majority of Southern Baptists actually go to.

You are correct in that the data I used was “Total Members” from the ACP. The reason this data was used is because the only valid study of this nature that I can find among all SBC research, reports the data according to “Total Members.” The study to which I am referring can be found at NAMB’s “Analysis of Southern Baptist Churches by Size of Church” .

I also agree with the comment that some churches with 1000 members have actual average attendance numbers in the hundreds is accurate as well. However, if one is to compare apples with apples, one is restricted to the data measurement of the original study.

I will seek to undertake a new study based on average attendance based on ACP but since there is not a foundational study on which to build, it may take a little time.

I wanted to throw this information out there because we all carry so many assumptions about what and who comprise the SBC. My opinion is the autonomous local churches comprise the SBC. That is how we have cooperated historically and for good reasons – inflated membership aside for now.